Helical blade mixer with heating device

ABSTRACT

A food mixer having parallel shafts with integral helical intermeshing blades on each shaft. Also extending from the housing of the food mixer, is a heating device which is used in conjunction with the helical blades of the mixer.

United States Patent Carmen P. Calrelli Farmington. Conn.

Apr. 4, 1969 June 29, 1971 Dynamics Corporation of America New York, N.Y.

[72] lnventor Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee [54] HELICAL BLADE MIXER WITH HEATING DEVICE 9 Claims, 15 Drawing Flp.

u.s.c| 41 /95, 4l6/l22.4l6/l46,4l6/176 lnt.Cl

B0lf7/24 Field of Search 416/95, 176,122,146,170

Primary Examiner-Everette A. Powell, Jr. AltomeyRichard P. Schulze ABSTRACT: A food mixer having parallel shafts with integral helical intermeshing blades on each shaft. Also extending from the housing of the food mixer, is a heating device which is used in conjunction with the helical blades of the mixer.

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' SHEET u UF 4 INVENTOR CARMEN P CAIRELLI HELICAL BLADE MIXER WITH HEATING DEVICE This invention relates generally to food mixers and more particularly to domestic stand or hand mixers having a helical blade configuration and a heating means in conjunction therewith.

Food mixers have become one of the more standard domestic appliances in use today. This is true of both the stand type and the hand held type since one or the other may be found in nearly every household and are used in many different food-mixing operations. Normally these mixers have a standard dual blade configuration wherein the blades of each of the two individual parallel shafts consist of arcuateflat metal strips which intermesh with the blades on the adjacent shaft so as to create a turbulent mixing action.

There is disclosed in a copending application, Ser. No. 766,402 entitled, Helical Blade Mixer" in the name of the present applicant, a particular type of mixer which is useful for operations which the normal mixer is not adapted to handle. Such requirements as the mixing of highly viscous materials for instance, cannot be met with the average everyday mixer. However, the mixer of the above-identified application is designed so as to provide a much wider range of usage in normal domestic applications. For further details relative to this type of mixer reference is hereby made to the above-identified application.

It is often desirable in any mixing operation to include some means for heating the food stuff that is being prepared. To applicants knowledge, all of the means for performing this heating function have been included in the bowl which is to be used with the mixer itself. Various types of heating have been used with the bowl, such as steam and electrical heating. Such heating methods naturally require substantially heavy and intricate base material.

It is an object of this invention to provide a helical mixer as described above together with heating means which are integral with the mixing housing itself rather than with any bowl structure.

A further object of this invention is to provide electrical heating means integral with the housing which cooperates with the helical blade structure of a hand held or stand type mixer.,

These and other objects of'this invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of one embodiment of the mixer used in the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the mixer shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken through the lines 3-3 of FIG. 1; I

FIG. 4 is a view of a modified type of mixer as disclosed in the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the showing in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a showing of one of the basic heating elements used in conjunction with the mixer of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken through lines 7-7of FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a further modified version of the mixer of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a side elevational view of the device of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken through lines 1040;

FIG. 11 is a front elevational view of a further modification of the device of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a side elevational view of the device of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a sectional view taken through lines 13-13 of FIG. ll;

FIG. 14 is a bottom view of the device shown in FIG. 11; and

FIG. I5 is a detailed partial sectional view of the coupling.

from the housing and connected to a standard type of driving means, with each of said shafts having thereon helical blade members which extend substantially along the axis of each of the shafts with the shafts being positioned so that the helical blades interact with each other in order to perform a mixing function. Additionally, electrical heating means are used which extend outwardly from the housing in the direction of the shafts and which are closely associated therewith.

Turning now more specifically to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1 a sectional view of a mixer including a housing 11 having associated therewith two hollow shaft members 13 and 15. Helical blade members 17 and 19, which may be integral with their respective shafts 13 and 15, extend along the length of the shafts. Located within the shafts and rotatable therewith are two solid electrical heating elements 21 and 23 which extend upwardly and terminate within the housing 11. Heating elements 21 and 23 may be firmly received within cylindrical shafts 31 and 33 which terminate in circular gears 25 and 27. These gears are in turn driven by a worm gear 29 which is connected to a driving means such as an electrical motor (not shown).

In the particular embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the shafts 13 and 15 are removable from the housing and the heating elements 21 and 23 are also removable therewith. Therefore, in order to establish a substantial locking means when theshafts and heating elements are inserted within the housing unit, there are provided on each of the shafts integral cams, such as shown at 35 on shaft 21, which pass beyond and are held in place by split-ring spring members 37.

FIG. 15 shows the basic concept of the use of the heater element having cam 35 and a split-ring-type spring-maintaining means 37 as broadly disclosed in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that this type of retainer would be used whenever the heating element is to rotate with the blade configuration.

With the modification shown in FIG. 1, it is necessary to provide electrical contacts for the rotating heating elements 21 and 23. This is provided, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, by means of slip rings 41 and 45 which make contact with the heating elements and provide the necessary electrical current thereto. For purposes of clarity, the ultimate connections of slip rings 41 and 45 to a power source are not shown.

FIG. 3 illustrates the relative positions of the helical blade members with relationship to each other.

FIG. 4 shows a further modification of the device as described in FIGS. 1 through 3. In this embodiment housing 47 includes shafts 49 and 51 similar to that shown in FIGS. 1 through 3. However, substantially rigid rod elements 53 and 55 are replaced for the heating elements as shown in FIG. I. These elements include therein lead wires as shown by dotted lines 57 and 59. These lead wires are connected to an electrical heating strip element as is more clearly shown in FIG. 6. This type of element is now well known in the industry and is often referred to as a tape heating element. Basically, this element comprises electrical leads such as 68 and 70 which are imbedded within a dielectric material which is not insulative and therefore passes the heat withinthe strip elements outwardly. These elements may be connected in any manner desired but as shown in FIGS. 4 and S are secured to the upper face of each of the helical elements so as to form heating elements 65 and 66. A sectional view is provided in FIG. 7 to show the resultant configuration which is developed by using such heating element as described herein.

FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 are illustrative of an embodiment of the present invention wherein the heating element itself is stationary and the blades move relative thereto. As can be seen, the heating elements 21 and 23 extend downwardly into the interior portion of the shafts in a manner similar to that shown in FIG. 1. In the modification as shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 the blades are press-fit over a hollow bearing shaft 83 and 85 so as to rotate therewith. In this instance the necessity for the slip rings is eliminated and the heating elements may be connected directly as shown. The use of this device or of the device as shown in FIG. 1 would depend upon the particular usage for which the unit was to be provided.

Since the basis of the present invention relates primarily to the mixer housing which provides both a helical blade type of mixer and aheater combined therewith, there is shown in FIGS. 11 through 14 a modification of the present invention wherein housing 111 included the beaters 115 and 117 with the blades [19 and 121 substantially as described hereinabove. Rather than include the heating elements within the beater themselves, there is shown a separate element which includes legs 123, 125 and 131 and which is provided with contacts 127 and 129 within the housing which may be connected to a power source (not shown). It will be understood that this particular type of heating element may comprise any configuration which would be most desirable to match the particular blades or number of blades used. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 11 through 14 the heater element is shown to have a configuration which substantially surrounds the two blade elements so as to provide a maximum heat distribution for the operation of the device.

The above description and drawings include several embodiments of the present invention. However, it is to be understood that such material is to be descriptive only and that various other modifications, configurations and substitutions could be used and still remain within the concepts of the present invention. Accordingly, this invention is to be limited only by the scope of the following claims.

lclaim:

1. An electrical domestic mixer for foods and ingredients of foods comprising,

a housing,

beater means including first and second hollow shaft members supported in journaled relationship in said housing and extending downwardly from'said housing, said shafts being substantially parallel,

a helical blade member secured to each of said shafts and extending along the lower length thereof, said blade members having oppositelyspiralled multicurved lands of substantially uniform radius disposed in interdigitating relationship and secured along their inner edges to their respective shafts,

driving means within said housing for rotating said shafts in opposite directions, and

electrical heating means connected within said housing and extending outwardly therefrom centrally through said shafts in heat transfer contact therewith for conduction of heat radially through the wall of said shaft and through the blades to ingredientsin contact with the beater means.

2. The mixer of claim-l wherein said electrical heating means comprises, I

a straight cylindrical heating element within each of said shaft members.

3. The mixer of claim 2 wherein said heating element is firmly press-fit within and rotates with said shaft members.

4. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said heating means comprises a substantially planar heating element affixed to one of the faces of each of said helical blades and is electrically connected to a power source within said housing.

5. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said heating means comprises a solid heating element extending outwardly from said housing adjacent said blades.

6. The mixer of claim 5 wherein said solid heating element is formed so as to substantially surround said helical blades.

7. In a mixer for foods an ingredients of foods,

first and second substantially parallel hollow shafts extending downwardly from and having identical clutch elements on their upper ends connected to the driving means of said mixer for rotation in opposite directions,

a helical blade member secured to each of said shafts and extending substantially along the axis of each of said shafts, said blades being spiralled in opposite directions and said shafts being positioned so that said helical blades interdigitate with each other a major portion of the distance between said shafts so as to perform a mixing function in which the mixture of ingredients between the shafts 1S moved axially along and in contact with said shafts, and

heating means extending outwardly from said mixer in the direction of said shafts and disposed in said hollow shafts in heat exchange relationship therewith.

8. The mixer of claim 2 wherein said heating means comprises vertically disposed spaced elements extending downwardly, and said hollow shafts are journaled thereon.

9. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said heating element is rigidly supported in the housing and said shaft members rotate thereon. 

1. An electrical domestic mixer for foods and ingredients of foods comprising, a housing, beater means including first and second hollow shaft members supported in journaled relationship in said housing and extending downwardly from said housing, said shafts being substantially parallel, a helical blade member secured to each of said shafts and extending along the lower length thereof, said blade members having oppositely spiralled multicurved lands of substantially uniform radius disposed in interdigitating relationship and secured along their inner edges to their respective shafts, driving means within said housing for rotating said shafts in opposite directions, and electrical heating means connected within said housing and extending outwardly therefrom centrally through said shafts in heat transfer contact therewith for conduction of heat radially through the wall of said shaft and through the blades to ingredients in contact with the beater means.
 2. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said electrical heating means comprises, a straight cylindrical heating element within each of said shaft members.
 3. The mixer of claim 2 wherein said heating element is firmly press-fit within and rotates with said shaft members.
 4. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said heating means comprises a substantially planar heating element affixed to one of the faces of each of said helical blades and is electrically connected to a power source within said housing.
 5. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said heating means comprises a solid heating element extending outwardly from said housing adjacent saId blades.
 6. The mixer of claim 5 wherein said solid heating element is formed so as to substantially surround said helical blades.
 7. In a mixer for foods an ingredients of foods, first and second substantially parallel hollow shafts extending downwardly from and having identical clutch elements on their upper ends connected to the driving means of said mixer for rotation in opposite directions, a helical blade member secured to each of said shafts and extending substantially along the axis of each of said shafts, said blades being spiralled in opposite directions and said shafts being positioned so that said helical blades interdigitate with each other a major portion of the distance between said shafts so as to perform a mixing function in which the mixture of ingredients between the shafts is moved axially along and in contact with said shafts, and heating means extending outwardly from said mixer in the direction of said shafts and disposed in said hollow shafts in heat exchange relationship therewith.
 8. The mixer of claim 2 wherein said heating means comprises vertically disposed spaced elements extending downwardly, and said hollow shafts are journaled thereon.
 9. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said heating element is rigidly supported in the housing and said shaft members rotate thereon. 